< Back to menu >

Ubuntu 7.04 on Acer TravelMate 661LCi

Here we go with a brand new and shiny Ubuntu Feisty.
The goal of this page is mainly to be some kind of 'backup reference guide' for my customized system.

Post-installation
After installation, the system needs to reboot (without the live CD). The booting is a graphical bar... Very annoying: is it booting? is it hanging? is it sending private information? I liked it better when there was at least some text...
Anyway, halfway the booting, Ubuntu needs to check the disks. For no apparrent reason, this is done in textmode... WTF?
Going from a useless total graphical booting to a total textual booting. This needs some serious work, I hope they wil include gFXboot sometime..

Theme
Ubuntu is know for its orange/brown theme since Dapper. Nice to look at, but annoying after 5mins for me, so I am gonna change the theme/border/icons to a blue theme.

System --> Preferences --> Theme
Choose "Clearlooks", click on "theme-details"
Tab 'Elements': Clearlooks
Tab 'Border': go to http://art.gnome.org/themes/metacity/1190 and drag the download link into the Border tab
Tab 'Icons': go to http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php?content=37099 and drag the HumanAzul download link into your Icon tab
Wallpaper: this one

Or even better: let's use Beryl !
(scroll down for more info)

686 kernel
They seem to have dropped the 686-kernel, there is only a "generic kernel".



Automatix2
You just gotta love the makers of Automatix. Setting op your system goes fast and easy with this GUI-script.
Go to GetAutomatix.com and read about it :)
It sets up your multimedia (sound, video), plugins for FireFox, Acrobat reader & much much more.
At the moment of writing: Automatix is in version 2.0; really nice graphical use !



Synaptic
Things I need to remove:
f-spot, tomboy, Evolution (via synaptic: all), ekiga, nautilus-sendto, gaim (not gaim-data, we will install Pidgin later on)

Things I need to install
make, autoconf, gcc, irssi, xmms (and -crossfade, -infopipe, -midi, -oggre), mozilla-thunderbird, camorama, qcad, bluefish, inkscape, mail-notification, straw, build-essential, 915resolution, ...



FireFox - Swiftfox
I would highly recommend to UNINSTALL FireFox and use Swiftfox instead.
FF is really slow. Swiftfox is exactly identical to FF, but Swiftfox is optimized for your processor, much much faster and your extensions will just work fine. >.Swiftfox homepage.<
Note: SwiftFox is a tweaked FireFox, but the license has changed: it isn't a 'free useable' browser

Anyway, I need extensions :-)


gogloom search engine

Qute theme



Take a backup of your "bookmarks.hml" before you install.


PyTelemeter
Only usefull for Belgian cable users () !!

PyTelemeter werkt volledig in Ubuntu Dapper.
Surfen naar http://pytelemeter.sourceforge.net/
Uitleg en installatieprocedure staan er ook.

Gewoon den tar.gz downloaden, uitpakken, via console naar de (uitgepakte) map gaan en dan typen:
python setup.py install
Verliep hier zonder problemen.

cp pytelemeterrc ~/.pytelemeterrc

gedit ~/.pytelemeterrc

daar vult ge uw Telenet login en paswoord in, opslaan.

chmod 600 ~/.pytelemeterrc

Now run pytelemeter-gtk, pytelemeter-tray or pytelemeter-cli (add -h to view cli options).

Nog een handigheidje: PyTelemeter-tray direct inladen tijdens het opstarten:
Systeem --> Voorkeuren --> Sessies --> Tab Programma's starten
daar voegt ge toe "pytelemeter-tray"



Pidgin
Previously known as Gaim.
No changes (as usual..) besides a Tango-theme for the icons.
Still no video/voice.
Someone has made a Feisty .deb here. (Remember: first sudo apt-get remove gaim)



aMSN, CVS version
Okay, why would you want to use a "beta"-version?
Because it has new things in it :) At the moment of writing, aMSN 0.97b has playback for webcam and 'personal messages' and voice clips.
Next version(s) are said to have voice chat support and lots more...
Do you want to run beta-version? Then the following is for you. Else download and install the .deb file from their webpage.

I absolutely LOVE aMSN. They have a forum (unlike gaim), the admins/programmers are friendly (friendlier than gaim) as long as you use the SEARCHfunction on their forum.
aMSN is quite cutting edge: they are the first (?) who actually implemented webcam (with playback !) and personal messages and so...

Okay, lets' first install tcl8.5 and tk8.5 (for anti-aliased fonts).
Go here and download tcl8.5a5 and tk8.5a5.
Extract them both and remember where.

In the following, I will give some brief commands. For better explaination, see the full code below.

Attention: dependency hell
Since this is a clean install, we will need some libraries and their dependencies for aMSN to compile properly.
The easiest way is to open Synaptic and install:
- tcl8.4 and tcl8.4-dev
- tk8.4 and tk8.4-dev
- search for 'xft' and install the dev
- imagemagic
- esound-clients
- libpng (12-dev?)
- libjpeg62-dev
- libltdl3-dev
- autoconf
- ...


Open a console and go to that directory
cd .../tcl8.5a4/unix
./configure --prefix=/usr
make
sudo make install

Same thing for tk:
cd .../tk8.5a4/unix
./configure --prefix=/usr --enable-xft
make
sudo make install

Next, we download http://amsn.sourceforge.net/amsn_dev.tar.gz
unpack it into your home-folder so you have ~/msn
Go into that folder
cd ~/msn
./configure --with-tcl=.../tcl8.5a4/unix/ --with-tk=.../tk8.5a4/unix/
make
sudo make install

gedit ~/msn/amsn
Edit the second line from "wish $0" to "wish8.5 $0"

Now you can run aMSN with: "~/msn/./amsn"



For the Chameleon-plugin to work, go to tile-page
Extract in ~/.amsn/plugins/chameleon
./configure
make
sudo make install


Let's config aMSN a bit.


screenshot of aMSN 0.97:
CLICK TO ENLARGE

 

 

Sunbird 0.x
Nightly builds are just fine ;-)
Just extract it somewhere and ./sunbird

 

XMMS - skin
Save .tar in ~/.xmms/Skins
Clearlooks-BMP

 

Beryl
Usefull eyecandy (if you lived under a rock and don't know what Beryl/Compiz is: search on YouTube.com for 'Beryl').
It works flawlessly on this hardware (although some effects like 'water' and 'rain' are not supported for this graphicscard).

to install Beryl:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

Add the following line to the top of the text file that comes up for editing:
deb http://ubuntu.beryl-project.org feisty main

Save the file and quit. Now back on the command line, issue the following four commands, one at a time:

wget http://ubuntu.beryl-project.org/root@lupine.me.uk.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install beryl beryl-manager emerald-themes heliodor beryl-manager

beryl-manager

There should now be a shiny red gem appearing in the notification area (Windows refugees, think "system tray") near the upper right of your screen. Right-clicking that icon gives you several useful options.

Select Window Manager lets you switch among Beryl, Compiz, or Metacity (the default, plain-vanilla window manager for Gnome).
Select Window Decorator affects how the frames of windows are drawn. Select Emerald, and you'll get window frames designed with Beryl in mind. (See Emerald Theme Manager, also in the red gem's menu, for more of these.) Select Heliodor, and you'll get plain window borders imported from Metacity.

Selecting Beryl Settings Manager will bring up the labyrinthine configuration dialog box for Beryl. Warning: If you're a settings geek, you will lose a few hours of your life here. Take note of where you can assign functions to the corners of the screen: Select General Options along the top and Shortcuts along the right, and then click the Screen Edges tab. The horribly named 'Initiate Window Picker for All Workspaces' function is the equivalent of Mac OS X's Exposé feature--task-switching nirvana, if you ask me.

If Beryl runs stably and you'd like it enabled every time you log in, select System, Preferences, Sessions. On the Startup Programs tab, click New. Enter beryl-manager in both text-entry fields and click OK. Now click Close.



Elisa
This a small media center. It is not a full media center like MythTV, but it is nice to play around with.
At the moment of writing: version 0.1.6. Still under (heavy) development, but it is nicely useable !
More info @ http://elisa.fluendo.com



CCBot/1.0 (+http://www.commoncrawl.org/bot.html)